Water resources minister, Sarah Ochekpe: Nasir el-Rufai is lying about water

by Sarah Reng Ochekpe

Nasir el-Rufai

As if such distortion was not enough,  El Rufai chose to ridicule himself and bring to question his intellectual capacity, even before the Nigerian children who actively took part in the proceedings of the recently held presidential summit on water…

My attention has been drawn to an article by Nasir Ahmad El Rufai in the NigeriaIntel.com titled ‘Counting the Cost of Nigeria’s Water. From the title one would think that El Rufai is desirous of being a champion for the Water Sector in Nigeria. However reading through the article, one is not left in doubt that it is all about the race to ASO VILLA in 2015.  And for El Rufai, the race has to be won and lost through distortion of facts and falsehood, what a pity.

In the said article he wrongly informed Nigerians and the World that the potable Water coverage for Nigeria is 32% and claims his source was a presentation made by the Minister of Water Resources in March 2012.  There has never been a time that the Ministry or the Minister gave such a figure to the public.  For the avoidance of doubt as at March 2012, the water coverage was 58% while the current coverage is 60%.

As if such distortion was not enough, El Rufai chose to ridicule himself and bring to question his intellectual capacity, even before the Nigerian children who actively took part in the proceedings of the recently held presidential summit on water 18-19, February, 2013, tagged: “Innovative Funding of the Water Sector in Nigeria”.  An event initiated and hosted by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa. It appears this falsehood was a calculated attempt by to discredit this administration in a bid to accomplish his desire to secure a place in the track for the race in 2015.

The event generated lots of excitement across the world considering the number of countries (about 20) that attended, the dignitaries that were present and those that sent in goodwill messages because of the personal invitations they received from Mr President.  It is therefore surprising that El Rufai could claim in his article that the President did not make time to attend the event indicating that the President is not committed to addressing the issue of water in Nigeria.  I used to think El Rufai was some sort of intellectual with depth but I am so disappointed that in these days of international connectivity via the media, internet and GSM which makes it difficult for anything to be hidden under the sun and above the sky, that El Rufai would commit such white lies. The event was even televised live and streamed on the social media. Haba my brother, mai ya yi zafi haka???

It may interest El Rufai to know that Mr President has a strong commitment to developing the Water Sector and this has been amply demonstrated in the various measures he has taken since he became the President.  These include:

1.     The recreation of the Ministry of Water Resources from the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources to enable it stand alone for better funding and impact;

2.     The development of a Water Sector Road Map;

3.     The reorganization of the River Basin Development Authorities;

4.     Directive to the Ministry to ensure that on-going projects are completed instead of introducing new ones;

5.     Provision of additional funds to the Ministry to complete some of the projects that have remained uncompleted for a long time like the Gurara Multipurpose Dam in Kaduna State which provides raw water to the FCT and has 30mw hydro power as well as 6000ha of irrigable land, the Ilesha Dam in Osun State and the Middle Rima Irrigation Project in Sokoto;

6.     Directive to the Coordinating Minister of the Economy to identify other funding widows for the sector outside the line budget;

7.     And recently the Presidential Summit on Water to develop better synergy among the three tiers of government in funding water, promote the involvement of the private sector and increase funding by international development partners, in a desire to even surpass the MDGs Targets.

The President has been widely commended on the Summit by different global actors in the Water Sector for the demonstration of high level political commitment to host the Summit and also attend personally.   As a result of this the Ministry has received several invitations from other Countries for experience and knowledge sharing and also to participate in their own processes.  Such invitations have been received from:

  • The Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development of the African Union;
  • The President of the Africa Ministers’ Council on Water;
  • The Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources of Egypt;
  • The Minister of Water Resources of Hungary;
  • The Minister of Water Resources of India;
  • The UN-Habitat etc.

As part of the follow up process after the Submit we were invited to Geneva to participate in the HLP discussion to ensure that Water becomes a standalone goal in the Sustainable Development Goals being developed for post 2015.  The Ministry equally participated in similar discussions in Monrovia, Tunis and The Hague.

A week ago, the Ministry collaborated with the French Embassy in Nigeria and the French Development Agency to host a dialogue on the “Right to Water”. We also held a follow up meeting with State Commissioners of Water Resources to develop an action plan for the implementation of the resolutions of the Summit. For details on the Presidential Summit on Water please visit the website www.presidentialwatersummit2013.com.ng

In view of this, I wish to caution that El- Rufai is sliding very fast on a slippery path to self destruction if he continues to churn out falsehood and distortions to Nigerians.  The little credibility he had when he served as Minister of the FCT will soon fade out.  Come to think of it, if El- Rufai thought of Water as important when he was Minister of FCT, he would have put in place an efficient and effective mechanism to ensure provision of water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  But that never happened.

Finally, I wish to further state that the current Administration is not aversed to constructive criticism, however criticism based on falsehood and misinformation will do no good to our country at this time. What the nation needs at this time is for all to join hands together with Government and build Nigeria of our dream. Long live Nigeria!

 

Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe
Honourable Ministeer of Water Resources,
Nigeria.

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Read this this in ReubenAbati.com.ng

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

One comment

  1. Ok mrs minister we have heard all d work your ministry and mr president is trying to do,sometimes u all just have to quit d defensive and prove d likes of malam el rufai and plenty nigerians dat work is in progress not dat u were invited to geneva,hague and whereever pls prove us all wrong,and as for elrufai,I honestly use to admire d man but since I read his book,the accidental public servant.well let’s just say he’s desperate and also selfish.what we nigerians want wish and pray for is for someone that has some sense to please take us out of d mess we’re into and quit defending anyone dats not worth defending kapish

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